Logitech Wireless Touchpad Review

Logitech Wireless Touchpad Review

Since Apple announced the Magic Trackpad, oversized touchpads have gone from something only found ergonomic specialty stores to items that can be found in your local Best Buy. It only makes sense: we've all become so accustomed to using them on our laptops a larger, detached version can work quite well as a mouse alternative. They are also more practical for home theater PC setups given that they work on any surface (even your lap). The only problem was that unless you were using a Mac, your weapon of choice was not an obvious one. Logitech solves this dilemma with their new Wireless Touchpad. The new offering brings oversized multi-touch trackpadding to the Windows 7 PC. Does the device live up to the Logitech name, which has practically become synonymous with high quality computer peripherals, or does it fall short? Read on to find out.

Main Features and Specifications:

5-inch multi-touch surface

2.4GHz wireless connection with Logitech Unifying receiver

Gesture-based controls

Powered by 2 AA batteries

Compatible with Windows 7

What We Liked

Solid Wireless Connection: Logitech equipped the Touchpad with their 2.4GHz Unifiying receiver which allows up to 6 compatible devices to be connected using the one receiver. The wireless range is very good and we had no issues with latency. The small USB receiver doesn't stick out much from your computer's USB port and can be left on even during travel.

Comfortable To Use For Extended Periods of Time: Using a mouse all day can get old, fast. Switching over to a large touchpad device like this gives your mousing hand of choice a much needed break. We logged a few hours on the Wireless Touchpad without fatigue. Surfing the web and scrolling through photos are effortless tasks and the process is more enjoyable than what is often found using a typical mouse. Scrolling is also smoothed out by Logitech's downloadable software and makes the experience even better.

Large buttons: While we would have liked to see the entire surface click, the oversized left and right-click buttons are easily depressed and could be actuated by thumb and pinky finger with little effort. It does take a bit of time to get used to the layout, but after an hour or so, it becomes second nature.

What We Didn't Like

Touch Area: The 5-inch surface area is certainly larger than most PC laptop touchpads, but the input surface does not extend to the edges of the device. During testing we constantly found our cursor not moving only to find out we had gone past the useable area of the touchpad. It seems like the obvious design choice would have been to make the entire surface usable. What's more, upon closer examination it was found that the actual surface area measured in at a paltry 4.5-inches. To put this into perspective, Apple's entire line of Mac portables ship with a 5-inch multi-touch trackpad.

No Bluetooth: Even though the wireless connection works well, the receiver requires a valuable USB port. With the majority of computers shipping with some version Bluetooth, it is unfortunate Logitech decided against using the completely wireless connection.

Windows 7 only: Chances are, the Mac users out there would opt for the Apple's own offering if it came time to invest in a large touchpad, but it is still slightly puzzling why Logitech would not make drivers for OSX.

Our Verdict:

Logitech makes some of the best computer peripherals on the planet. The MX510 and MX518 gaming mice have been firmly planted under our hands both at work and at home for tasks ranging from gaming to wrangling spreadsheets. It's because of this solid heritage that it saddens us to say Logitech's first attempt at the oversized touchpad market falls short. That being said, if you are a Windows 7 PC user seeking refuge from your mouse, this touchpad should work quite well -- just don't expect nirvana.